Somaliland sun – A couple in Burao has been forcibly divorced by the Toghdeer regional appeal court.
This is an example of how the broken Somaliland justice system is failing to protect children from sexual abuse.
This week an appeal court in Burao sentenced a convicted child murderer and molester to seven years in prison. Two years ago, the child was molested and tortured by her stepfather and died of injuries she suffered from the molestation and beatings of her stepfather.
The decision came during the hearing of an appeal case #119/18 in the Toghdeer regional court filed by the accused Said Mohamed Farah and his wife Farhiya Mohamed Dable
The two had appealed against their sentence imposed by a lower court having been found guilty of the death of their 9 years old daughter who died in the Toghdeer regional hospital from wounds sustained during a rape by the first accused Said Mohamed Farah.
According to the regional appeal court Judge Barkhad Isahaq Barre the first accused who is foster father to the deceased girl was guilty of rape (Defilement) and subsequent beating of the victim leading to her death.
The initial sentence of four years’ imprisonment for the perpetrator of the heinous crime was upheld by the appeals court.
For the mother of the deceased girl Farhiya Mohamed Dable the appeals court agreed with the decision of the lower court of 2018 that she was an accomplice in the crime of rape and subsequent battery of her nine years old daughter thence sentenced to three years’ imprisonment.
Similarly, the appeals court which decreed the forcible divorce of the couple also ordered that a daughter of the coupled 5 years old Halima currently in custody with her mother be immediately put in the care of responsible agencies.
At the same time the two who are initially from the Majeerten Clan in Somalia’s Regional state of Puntland are to be deported out of Somaliland upon completion of their sentences.
Watch Somaliland: Justice System Fails Defiled and Murdered Child in Burao
